BOOK REVIEW : A Politician Trapped in Comic Mayhem : STRIP TEASE <i> by Carl Hiaasen</i> Alfred A. Knopf: $21, 357 pages

In his new novel, “Strip Tease,” Carl Hiaasen tilts the grimmest of real-life situations toward laugh-out-loud bawdiness. There’s no end to blackmail schemes, corrupt politicians, kinky sex and revenge ploys.

Wackier than Joe Wambaugh’s cops, comic-crime writer Hiaasen’s characters metamorphose from society’s fringes. The men and women who inhabit his books are as preposterous as they are loving. And they behave outlandishly in the chronic mayhem the author creates for them.

Set in Fort Lauderdale, the story involves former FBI clerk Erin Grant, a topless dancer at the Eager Beaver strip tease joint. She has taken this job to pay the towering legal fees in her custody battle for her 4-year-old daughter Angela.

Her ex-spouse, the sociopathic, drug-addicted felon Darrell Grant, has filed a petition with the court charging Erin is an unfit mother. He invites the judge to come see for himself what his ex-wife does for a living.

After sitting through numerous dance numbers, the judge concludes Erin’s young daughter is better off in the custody of her father. “That Darrell Grant was a pill head, a convict and a dealer in stolen wheelchairs didn’t bother the judge as much as the fact that Erin took her undies off in public.”

The story opens during a raucous bachelor party at the Eager Beaver on the eve of Paul Guber’s wedding. Sloshed and smitten with Erin, the groom-to-be jumps on stage, grabs the dancer by the waist and won’t let go. Suddenly, a very drunk man begins wielding an empty champagne bottle at Guber’s head.

The bottle-walloping man is the thinly disguised Congressman David Dilbeck, a married man who can’t resist naked women, even in an election year. And he lusts after Erin. Dilbeck’s trusty executive assistant, Erb Crandall, hurriedly grabs Dilbeck and they flee the club.

But not before Dilbeck is noticed by a regular club patron dubbed Mr. Peepers. Mr. Peepers is infatuated with Erin and plans to blackmail the politician into helping Erin get her child back.

Added to Dilbeck’s dilemma, the bachelor’s buddies managed to snap some photographs of the incident. It’s a situation that calls for expert political fixer Malcolm M. Moldowsky.

Hiaasen, a journalist for the Miami Herald, knows his locale and its bureaucrats well. Florida’s political landscape underpins his story: “Even by Florida standards, Hialeah was--and remains--egregiously corrupt. For council members, the easiest graft was fixing of zoning cases in exchange for cash, real estate and other valuables.

“The atmosphere in Florida’s capital was different, and the pace of life was faster. Corruption was a sociable affair, rich with tradition; the stakes were higher, as well. Because of occasional scrutiny by pesky news reporters, it was unwise for legislators to be seen drooling openly on the laps of private lobbyists. . . .”

Then to illustrate the meager work elected officials do, he cites two bills authored by Dilbeck that are considered to be landmark legislation. One bill made it illegal for sporting good stores to sell machine-gun clips to minors on Sunday; the other achievement was a joint resolution naming the Okaloosa dwarf salamander as Florida’s official state amphibian.

While Hiaasen’s heroine Erin’s profession may connote sleaze, she is no bimbo. The author presents his women as smarter than men, informed and witty.

During a date with Erin, Dilbeck displays a photo album and points to himself with powerful men. ‘Know who that is?”

“ ‘Tip O’Neill,’ said Erin.

“ ‘Dilbeck was astounded. ‘You are something special .’

“ ‘Former Speaker of the House.’

“ ‘Right!’

“ ‘So what do I win,’ Erin said, ‘a dinette set?’ ”

With practically each chapter, Hiaasen introduces new characters who appear to have absolutely nothing to do with the story. Then, just as the reader begins to wonder if the author has wigged out, he neatly ties them into the narrative and it all makes sense.

“Strip Tease” is rather a deadly caper: numerous major characters turn up dead. But Hiaasen’s energetic dialogue and warm-hearted humor make the book hard to put down.

Inventive, witty, and refreshingly entertaining, Hiaasen scores a hit with this madcap adventure.